Welcome to the vine. There are few of us who are growing vegetables in our garden. So plenty to talk about later with the challenges facing small garden plot & container growing.
I also started mine this year with a 3ft by 13ft raised bed, 2 planks high but I don't have walking access on one side as it's against a low hedge that is a border between ours and neighbour's garden...it's not easy to reach out the far end of bed unless you really stretch out your body (very uncomfortable) or stand on the two planks. So do think carefully over the width of the bed. I personally like raised beds because they're neat (& pretty), easier to control/maintain/pull weeds, heard they drain water well too and you can incorporate your own great looking soil coz I'm bed vain.
I think you're pretty well covered on advice from other viners so I won't add any more. Good luck and enjoy veg gardening. It's made my life more meaningful.